Fish Lab Practical Practice Test

Lanternfishes sit in a specific lineage of bony fishes marked by a progression from a broad teleost clade to a more specialized family. They belong to the clade Euteleostei, then to the order Myctophiformes, and finally to the family Myctophidae. This places them squarely among the bioluminescent lanternfishes that inhabit the mesopelagic zone. The other paths point to different fish groups—for example, squirrelfishes are in Holocentriformes/Holocentridae, pikes in Esociformes/Esocidae, and true cods in Gadiformes/Gadidae—so they don’t correspond to lanternfishes.